Wales: Land of My Father [Hardcover]

David Hurn (Photographer), Patrick Hannan (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, Wales experienced a remarkable transformation, epitomizing the dramatic cultural changes that have taken place throughout the world. From a country with an economy, culture, and landscape dominated by agriculture and the heavy, industries of coal, steel, and slate. Wales has become a place where the mines, mills, and quarries are closed tither for good or to be reinvented as mythical "heritage" tourist attractions -- and where the new industries are high-tech and computer-based. The power of big business has arrived in the form of fast food, film, television, and the Internet, and there have been huge steps forward in issues such as feminism and the environment that affect everyday life for all Welsh people.

Photographer David Hurn has been studying the metamorphosis in Wales, the "land of his father", over a period of twenty years. His carefully observed photographs reveal both the traditional and the modern sides of the country. The strength of Welsh culture and history is represented by images of mine-workers with their pit-ponies, day-trippers on the beach, sheep-dog trials and horse fairs, brass bands, traditional singers, the chapel, and the eisteddfod. Alongside are modern developments: Japanese factories producing microchips and computer products, hamburger stands, discos -- even male strippers. Every picture tells its own truth, about life in Wales now and in the recent past, providing a distilation, in exquisite miniature, of the global change that is so inexorably a part of contemporary human experience.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500019835
• ISBN-13: 978-0500019832
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,972,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Photographs that touch the heart", July 18, 2000

By 

Richard D. Zakia (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wales: Land of My Father (Hardcover)

As I looked through the black and white photographs by David Hurn in his book, "Land of my Father", I was deeply touched by the honesty, warmth and beautiful simplicity of the images, and the fact that I did not feel like an intrudeer or stranger. It caused me to reflect on what it might be like for me to visit the land of my father and mother. Would it be similar to David's visit to Wales? I would like to think so, for his photographs have a universal appeal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars B/W Documentary Dedicated to Places - Highly Recommended, March 9, 2003

By 

Duncan Wong (EyesCoffee.com from Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wales: Land of My Father (Hardcover)

The ambiguity of the places (Wales) as well as the identity of the people (Welsh), forms an opened question from this book. Things are sometimes changing at a pace, that is difficult to be observed from the superficial level. It could happen in various aspect, economically, culturally, politically. Coal, steel, slate industry was diminishing. People were starting to lead their new way of living.

One interesting part of images (and even art) is its ambiguity. Suddenly, I think of my home, Hong Kong.